After a mild winter, with temperatures that rarely fell below 18 F, the Midwest witnessed an increase in springtime bee swarms — a phenomena in which hives become too large, causing some to break off in search of a new queen. That just might be a positive sign for pollinators in the region after years of sharp declines, beekeepers say.
“There are lots of swarms to catch this year, more than I’ve ever seen, so a lot of beekeepers are increasing their number of colonies this year,” Max Powers, a recreational beekeeper from Bloomington, Indiana, said.
Bob Chmelik, known to Youngstown, Ohio, locals as “Bob the Bee Man,” and who has 35 years of experience in bee removal, said that his winter bee population exceeded his expectations.
“A 10 to 30 percent die off isn’t unusual but in previous years we’ve been getting 60 to 90 percent die off,” Chmelik said of his 40 hives, “This year I had a 20 percent die off that told me that the winter wasn’t as hard on me this year, but I didn’t expect the swarms to be like they are.”
Swarming is a “natural tool by which honey bees divide and spread to new areas,” said Mike Hansen, state apiarist from the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development. Warmer winters can help boost populations too. “When we have a milder winter, the result is that bees can start their brood rearing earlier, and because of earlier pollen and nectar availability, they build up their numbers earlier and faster than they can in a long, cold winter,” Hansen said.
Jennifer Bland, a 44-year-old beekeeper and bee product seller, said she lost three of her five hives over the winter, but gained three from swarm traps and collecting them off private properties. “That tells me that we have healthy bees and we’re replenishing all of the bees that have been dying off because of the pesticide kill over the past couple of years,” Chmelik said.
Despite the positive anecdotal accounts, USDA data found that hives declined by 17 percent, or 429,000 colonies, between January and March. With California, Florida and Texas accounting for roughly 63 percent of the country’s 2.59 million managed honey producing populations, it is still unclear how swarming bees in the Midwest will affect national honey production and crop pollination.